Hungchen Rinpoche's Stupas

Lhasray Rinpoche related a story about the two stupas built in Ahor province, presently Tangchen, Nagchu county. Nagchu is a nomad town in northern Tibet. They were built by Hungchen Rinpoche according to dakini predictions but got torn down during the Cultural Revolution.

In 1995 Rinpoche rebuilt two new stupas on the same site. They have become important sacred objects in Nagchu. Now many flowers grow there, despite the fact that it's a nomad area where flowers did not grow previously. Patients recounted their miraculous recoveries after circumambulating them on a regular basis. After the construction was completed, 100 monks recited the prayers there for 5 months. Then Rinpoche went there to consecrate them. It took him 2 weeks to finish the consecration.

Rinpoche said the sites for these stupas were interesting. One was built around the navel area of a plot of land that has a human shape. The other was built in the middle of a plot of land that has a tricycle shape. The tricycle symbolizes 3 poisons generally expressed in Tibetan Buddhism with chicken (greed/attachment), snake (anger/hatred) and pig (ignorance).

He commented that a stupa should be built on bad land like this to suppress kleshas and evil energy. Otherwise, it should be built on auspicious land to promote positive energy. In addition, it should be built on a hill so that people can have its glimpse from far away. This will bring a lot of inspiration, let alone talking about its beauty. He compares the two big stupas in Ganze county and Tawu county in Kham. The one in Tawu is much larger than the one in Ganze. But since the location of the Ganze stupa is on a hill, it looks larger and more beautiful.

This is a reason why Rinpoche keeps insisting that we build the Tara Great Stupa on a hill. As we don't obtain a natural hill, we'll make a hill that will become a temple on its own.